Enhancing Skills in the Eastern Caribbean

Andreas Blom, Education Economist, World Bank, St. Lucia May 17, 2006

Overview

• Why should we care about skills?

• School is life

• From school to life

• Life is school

• The key points

Why should we care about skills

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

50,000

15 - 19 20 - 24 25 - 29 30 - 34 35 - 39 40 - 44 45 - 49 50 - 54 55 - 59

Age

Wa

ge

EC

$ p

er

yea

r

University (16-18)Post-secondary(13-15)Secondary (8-12)

Primary (4-7)

Primary (1-3)

Source: Population and Household Census 2001, St. Vincent and the Grenadines,

OECS (St. Vincent and the G.): Salary by education level

Skills: Most important obstacle for Grenadian firms

0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0

H e a l t h o f w o r k e r s ( A I D S / H I V )T r a n s p o r t a t io n : lo c a l

A c c e s s t o la n dT e le c o m m u n ic a t io n s

L a b o r r e la t io n sT r a n s p o r t a t io n : C a r ic o m

W a t e rL e g a l s y s t e m / c o n f l ic t r e s o lu t io n

C o r r u p t io nM a c r o e c o n o m ic in s t a b i l i t y

A n t i - c o m p e t i t iv e p r a c t ic e s T r a n s p o r t a t io n : in t e r n a t io n a l

E c o n o m ic & r e g . p o l ic y u n c e r t a in t yC r im e , t h e f t & d is o r d e r

E le c t r ic i t yA c c e s s t o f in a n c in g

T a x r a t e sC o s t o f f in a n c in g

S k i l ls & e d u . o f a v a i la b le w o r k e r s

M a j o r o b s t a c l e S e v e r e o b s t a c l e

New jobs: Skilled

0 20 40 60 80 100

Retail/wholesale Services

Energy

Construction

Transport

Professional Services

Medical services

ICT-enabled services

Financial services

Tourism

Other Manufacturing

Electric & electronics

Textile & garments

Food processing

Agriculture

Professionals

Skilled Workers

Unskilled Workers

Workers by education level per economic sector (Caribbean)

Opportunities for everyone

• Competitive labor market • Inequality

• Crime and youth unemployment

Overview

1. Why should we care about skills?

2. School is life

3. From school to life

4. Life is school

5. The key points

80% ends schooling with secondary• Universal secondary: Fantastic• Focused on preparation for tertiary level studies • Few labor market oriented courses, (little counseling and little help in transitioning to the world of work)

Dominica: Transition from Primary to Secondary

24.3

44.6

30.0 25.8

51.6

66.0

77.9

35.3

41.232.6

25.824.1

33.5

83.6

010203040

5060708090

% o

f pup

ils fr

om p

rimar

y th

at

cont

inue

s in

gen

eral

sec

onda

ry

Knowledge Economy skills

• Quality of education !• Growing focus on “life skills”• Reliability, critical thinking, team

work, etc.• Also demanded by employers in the

OECS• Incorporated into curriculum,

teaching and examinations

Life skills for jobs

4%

11%

12%

16%

24%

48%

55%

57%

63%

88%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Age

Vocational Skills

General work exp.

Education

IT Skills

Appearance

Adaptability

Co-operation Skills

Team Spirit

Attitude to work

Important Very important

St. Kitts: Employers’ assessment of desirable skills

Source: OECS St. Kitts and Nevis: Retraining the Sugar Workers, 2005

Live skills for jobs

Caribbean: Employers’ assessment of most desired skill set

Source: Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network: Labor Market Survey, 2006

45%

47%

68%

77%

79%

82%

86%

86%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Computer skills

Dependability

Taking individual responsibility

The ability to work well on teams

Communication skills

Problem solving / efficiency

Work ethic

Honesty/integrity

Gaps in offered careers

St. Lucia Hotel survey (WB 2005):• Chefs/sous chefs, Managers/Supervisors, Front

Office staff

St. Lucia HR Needs Assessment (UWI 2005):• Managers, IT-professionals, construction and

hospitality

Caribbean Labor Market Survey (CKLN 2006):• Supervisors/managers, IT professionals, skilled

trades workers, and technical workers

Conversations with employers:• Trained room attendants, food preparation and

servicing, maintenance of tourism properties, spas and massages, yachting etc.

How to close the career gaps?

• Needs assessment, adjust offerings and enrolment admissions

Permanent change: • External board (society/employers)• Track demand and job-performance of

graduates at the local level• Improve institutional focus: from

“academic excellence” to “drivers of the local economy”

• Small countries / institutions: collaboration (CKLN)

Overview

1. Why should we care about skills?

2. School is life

3. From school to life

4. Life is school

5. The key points

Transition from school to life

•Where the chain breaks

•Lose your human capital

•Deviant behaviour

13%

56%

24%

11%

39% 39%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

An

tigu

a &

Ba

rbu

da

Do

min

ica

Gre

na

da

St.

Kitt

s a

nd

Ne

vis

St.

Lu

cia

St.

Vin

cen

t&

the

% u

ne

mp

loy

me

nt

Adult

Youth

Source: National Labor surveys different years 1991-2004

How to build skills in the transition

• Assist those with difficulties finding jobs

• Training, private sector driven to lead to jobs

• Traineeship successful in the OECS: 50% stay with employer

• Traineeship could be expanded much more

Overview

1. Why should we care about skills?

2. School is life

3. From school to life

4. Life is school

5. The key points

On-the-job training

•Low training of work force

Source: Caribbean Investment Climate Assessment, World Bank (2005)

% of firms training workers85%

75%65%

54% 50%41%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

DominicanRepublic

LatinAmerica

Belize Haiti Grenada T&T

Reasons

• Lack of emphasis and systemic approach:– Improve firms’ HR policy– Increase labor unions’ focus on training– Government: many small ad-hoc efforts

• Poaching and small size of firms (public role)

• Low recognition and value of training

• Incipient market for private training

How to enhance skills in the labor force

Goal: Market for training with standards, financing and evaluations (but Rome was not built on one day)

Standards: Collaborate– Adapt CVQ standards (1-2 industry groups)– Information campaign on standards to workers and employers– Agreement with assessment agencies– Work on the portability within CSME

Finance: Collaborate– 2nd chance education programs: 99% publicly financed– Unemployed (but motivated) youth: “75%” publicly financed– Employees: training levy?

Monitoring and evaluation: Collaborate– You will never get it right the first time

Job and productivity from:

• Quality education• School is exam, not life (labor

market competency oriented)• Empower and talk with employers• Helping youth gain experience:

Scale-up training and traineeship• Creating a market for training:

adopt a couple of CVQ standards for a key industry